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August 26, 2018

The Summer Blogging Slump

Conservative Skeptic recently mentioned that his blog traffic has been down lately, and I've noticed the same thing throughout much of July and August. This is to be expected. Many bloggers complain about a summer slump in their traffic. Search for something like "summer blog traffic," and you'll see what I mean. Of course, just because I think I have noticed this trend here at Atheist Revolution does not necessarily mean that it is real. Remember, skepticism! Time to do some investigatation.

I pulled up my Google Analytics data from 2017 and saw a clear pattern. Traffic peaked in January and declined gradually in February and March. There was a somewhat more pronounced drop from March to April with no change in May. There was a small drop in June followed by another small drop in July. July, August, and September were basically the same, and then things began to improve as October neared. At least for 2017, there was clear evidence of a summer slump. July and August were my worst months with some improvement beginning in late September.

My 2018 numbers to date show a different story in one respect but a similar one in terms of the summer slump we're talking about. In 2018, traffic increased from January to February and February to March before stabilizing through May. Then there was another increase in June followed by the familiar drop in July and August. More evidence that July and August tend to be poor traffic months.

Most of the suggestions I have seen from other bloggers writing about the summer slump focus on ways to combat it. Some recommend posting more often, ramping up one's use of social media to offset it, and so on. A few others recommend not worrying about it and just riding it out. I tend to think they are probably right. Some months have always seemed to be better than others, and I'm okay with that. Besides, it really doesn't surprise me that there would be a drop off during these months.

I can understand why bloggers would be motivated to improve their traffic during these summer months when it tends to decline; however, ramping up one's efforts in the face of a predictable decline probably means that one's efforts will be less efficient. More work for less reward does not sound appealing. Maybe I will be inspired to try something different one of these summers. I could imagine that something as simple as doubling my social media output during July and August might help. It also occurs to me that these months might be a good time to take a break.